POOR children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of England make almost two years less progress at school compared to richer youngsters across the country, research has found.

Even pupils who are not considered poor but live in one of the Government's 'opportunity areas' - towns and cities considered to face the most challenges in improving children's life chances - are falling behind their peers nationally, it argues.

West Somerset was named as one of these areas by Education Secretary Justine Greening last month, who will receive part of £60 million shared between the six areas.

The initiative is expected to be widened out to other parts of the country in the coming months.

The new study, by new charity Ambition School Leadership, compared the performance of children in these areas with youngsters across England.

It found that in 2015, persistently disadvantaged youngsters in these six areas - children who are eligible for free school meals for 80 per cent of the time between the ages of 11 and 16 - were around 20.1 months behind at GCSE level compared to non-disadvantaged children across England.

And wealthier pupils, considered to be those not on school meals, in these areas made around 4.7 months less progress compared to other youngsters nationally.

The study shows that this progress gap has widened, increasing by 3.6 months between 2010 and 2015 for richer pupils living in opportunity areas, and by 8.3 months for persistently disadvantaged children living in these places.

It also reveals that schools in these areas were most likely to see a fall in Ofsted's grading of their leadership and management.

Around 18 per cent of schools rated as having good or outstanding leadership in 2010 saw a drop down to requires improvement or inadequate by March 2016.

Action is needed to stop the decline in progress in disadvantaged areas, the report says.

"We must increase the number of high-quality leaders in these areas and support those in post, so that schools have enough leaders capable of improving school performance, closing the progress gap and ensuring positive outcomes for pupils."

School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said: "We want to make this a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few, and education is at the heart of that ambition.

"Thanks to the Government's reforms, more than 1.4 million more children are in schools rated good or outstanding than in 2010.

"This report underlines the need to focus our efforts in the areas identified as the most challenged when it comes to social mobility.

"We are investing £60 million piloting a series of Opportunity Areas across the country, working in partnership with local organisations to look at ways of improving the life chances of young people so that they can go as far as their talents will take them."